I took an early C12 army with a few Bedouin allies roped in to provide some light troops. The army consisted of:
- 3 morally superior Crusader generals
4 blocks of cheap and cheerful defensive spearmen (2 armoured, 2 protected, each of 6 bases)
1 unit of crossbowmen (protected, 6 bases)
1 unit of archers (protected, 6 bases)
1 unit of turcopole light horse (with bow, swordsmen, 4 bases)
3 units of hard-as-nails [hopefully] knights (armoured, lance & sword, 4 bases)
A Bedouin ally
2 units of fleet-footed Bedouin light horse (lance & sword, one of 6 bases, one of 4)
1 unit of Bedouin light foot (bow, 6 bases)
My brilliant plan (well, my only plan) was to lead with the defensive spearmen and keep the knights in reserve, moving them to where they were needed or where the opponent looked weak. The light horse were to occupy the wings and try and work around the enemy??™s flank. The light foot and missile troops were to contest terrain.
The first game was against Paul Cummin??™s Hundred Years War English ??“ clearly vying to be first to Jerusalem. Paul had read the rules but not yet played a game. Here was my chance! I was therefore quite shocked to find that, deploying his army and playing from first principles, Paul giving me a close run game. Surely wargame rules should take months and months to master!
Here is the situation at deployment. Paul is on the left, doing some quick last-minute calculation of longbow factors against spearmen.
Paul deployed his army with alternate longbow blocks (with nasty stakes) and men-at-arms. His right flank (just visible on the left-hand edge of the photo) was guarded by mounted knights. His left flank was protected by light horse.
I??™m on the right, with spearmen in the centre, my Bedouin light horse in the foreground on my left backed up by a unit of knights. On my right are the missile troops, supported by knights in the open. The turcopoles are on the extreme right.
The situation after the opening moves is as follows:
I??™m pushing forward on the wing. The spearmen have decided to hold a prayer meeting and are somewhat delayed in advancing, promising to join the general advance ???soon???.
Paul reacts to my flank move on his right by swinging part of his line around. Since the longbowmen are now facing someone else, the spearmen announce that their prayer meeting is complete and they can advance.
A couple of turns later and Paul??™s mounted knights (just out of picture to the left), working in combination with the longbowmen, have driven back the light horse (in the foreground). My spearmen and light foot in the upper-centre of the photo are starting to get disrupted by intense shooting. Paul decided not to charge my disrupted spearmen, instead he chose to continue to try and disrupt me by shooting (it worked for him on the opposite flank). I managed to get a general to them in the nick of time, to then rally them, and eventually decided to charge their tormentors. Through shear good luck (I rolled better dice!) I managed to defeat the longbowmen.
Meanwhile??¦ on the other flank my turcoploles and missile troops are trying to put pressure on the end of the English line. In the centre upper/left my spearmen are hoping that if they keep quiet the English won??™t notice them.
This is the same flank a couple of turns later, but seen from a different angle. The spearmen hoping not to be notice were targeted by the longbows and rapidly shot to pieces. They can be seen in the centre right of the photo hastening off the table to hold another prayer-meeting. I??™ve had to throw two units of knights in to cover the hole in my line. Fortunately I managed to get the knights into contact before the longbows had time to deploy their stakes. The knights broke into the longbow formation and eventually rout them. In the top-centre of the photo my missile men also managed to triumph against their English opposition, mainly through the cunning ploy of having greater numbers.
At this stage Paul??™s army had accumulated sufficient losses and the game was over.
It proved to be a close game and frankly it was only through good fortune on my part that I managed to overwhelm the longbowmen (generally we were on equal odds). My light troops on the wings didn??™t manage to work around the English flanks, but they did draw off enough troops from the main battle to prove their worth.
The next report will be posted shortly.
